Jynx has already been a bit of a problem leader - it was one of the first issues we tackled back when I bought her because she's learned to walk directly behind a human, clip your heels and jump on top of you if she spooked. I used a Dressage whip to give her a tap in the flanks to get her stepping up at my shoulder and it worked very well.

More recently, she's gotten silly again. It's moreso that she's so friggin lazy, she'll walk as slow as possible until she ends up behind me. With all this rain and clay slucking us in (I've almost lost my rubber boots thirty times in the last two days) this is a SERIOUS problem because she's plowing through the clay in the pasture and then clipping my heels.

So when leading her, if she starts lagging, I do what most normal horse people do - I flick my leadrope behind me to remind her she needs to step up. Jynx is quite thick headed and thick skinned to boot, so sometimes it takes a pretty solid wallow on the butt to make her pay attention - thinking of course about how hard you can wallop a horse with a leadrope when you're flicking it BEHIND you and not turning around.

I kid you not, the king turd cowboy who thinks he runs the place actually comes up to me and informs me I need to stop "beating my horse in front of customers". Yeah. APPARENTLY - for three weeks now, someone is complaining about me hitting and abusing my horse. :roll: My jaw dropped - me and Jynx have had our "come to Jesus" meetings before, but we certainly haven't had one here and even if we did, I certainly wouldn't do it in public. I was like "What do you mean HITTING?" and he goes "What you were just doing, hitting her with your leadrope."

I ended up storming off while he yelled at me to stop giving him attitude. Right DAD, I'll get right on that. I think I'm a bit irked because this is the dinkus who went after my Arab and hit her with a Dressage whip because he MISTOOK her for another chestnut Arab who comes in the barn at night. This is the same man who rides up behind the trail horses with total novices on them and slashes them across the butts so hard with his reins, they leap forward.

To clarify, we are boarding at a "dude ranch" of sorts where idiot city slickers can come and pay to ride a horsey on a guided trail. So apparently, all training and discipline has to CEASE the minute we're outside the arena lest some moron who thinks he knows how to handle my 1200lbs of stubborn horse better then I do runs and complains to the owner about my HORSEY ABUSE.

Any suggestions that doesn't involve anything that could be miscontrued as abuse to get her walking at my shoulder and knocking it off with the lazy bit? I guess I could just work the crap out of her in the arena and get her listening and paying attention. For the most part, she leads great, it's just when she gets in the wet clay she pulls back and scootches in behind me.

Also, would you stay at a barn if you had to deal with such idiotic nonsense?

i probably would not stay ..if my horse needs to step up i will make her step up..she is yours not theirs and if they dont like it ..well thats their deal not yours..you can't let your horse misbehae or get away with something it shouldnt just because people think you are wrong in your disipline.
you could pop the lead rope forward like a bump to reind her to speed up

The barn I'm at has trail riders too and my horse is like yours, I need to use lead ropes and stuff to get through to her and when she's being a turd and I have to hit her the people waiting for trail go slient! Fortunatley the person who owns the barn doesn't care if the trail riders get upset with it. She's actually had a person call animal rescue or whatever on her cuz the horse had vet rap on its leg!Posted via Mobile Device

If you want...I'll bring my smart aleck QH and my "crazy TB mare" and do some training with them at your farm. Your abuse will look like love when I'm done. I use WHIPS, SPURS and CHAINS (oh my) when my horses decide they don't want to listen. Not to mention, they're both REALLY good at non-traditional airs-above-ground when I get them really good and pissed off. But then when I'm done I can untack them and they follow me around like puppy dogs and are the first ones to greet me in the field. They must just be gluttons for punishment =P.

My only other advice is to ignore them if you can or find another barn if you can't. Sometimes saving money on boarding isn't worth it when you can't do anything you want and you're constantly angry at the BO. Good luck though!

I don't know if this would constitute as "Abuse", but you could try carrying a lunge whip with you and tap her to make her keep up. I have an article on it in Western Horseman, though it doesn't do you any good on the computer. I could look for it and type in some tips if it would help.

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